A Positive Perspective to Redesign the Online Public Sphere: A Deliberative Democracy Approach

The World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2024 [1] lists AI-generated misinformation and disinformation and polarization in the top three of the most severe risks for the coming two year period. Underlying these interconnected risks is the digital infrastructure of networking sites, making social media a socially disruptive technology. Within this digital context of risk, scholars argue that laypeople's epistemic norm have been disrupted, leading to so-called post-factual attitudes [3]. While various explanations have been given to understand the dynamics in online public debate, the philosophical background commonly implicated is postmodernism [4, 5, 8, 9]. Regulation and design of social media platforms arguably mirror the interpretation that the public sphere has become post-factual. While these regulatory and design solutions have clear effects, the risks ofmisinformation, disinformation and polarization are insufficiently curbed. Thus, more solutions are needed. In view of this, I argue to understand online dynamics from the philosophical perspective of deliberative democracy theory. Specifically, I argue that the character of discourse in online public spheres can be understood in light of three revisions to deliberative democracy theory, namely 1) diversifying acceptable communication styles in deliberations, 2) embracing pluralism, and 3) recognizing that group-based justice claims can be democratically beneficial. This approach provides a positive understanding of online dynamics and inspires alternative strategies to redesign and regulate socialmedia to mitigate the risks of misinformation, disinformation and polarization.